Hey Doll, It's Time For a Fall Haul!

And boy, have I been taking advantage of the deals this season! You gotta get out there, Thriftdoggers. That's all I'm sayin'. Especially if you are seeking the fall 2014 uniform all of your coworkers are wearing - skinny pants, long sweaters, tunics, leather or jean jackets with shirts peeking out underneath, denim shirts, boots or flats, big scarves and large, preferably leather or tried and true Coach/ Dooney/ Longchamp totes to pull the look together. I call it the waiting-for-the-Light Rail-but-everyone-knows-you-own-a-nice-car look. Smart, polished, hipster, affluent. Yet the look is almost laughably easy to get on the cheap if you know where to buy.

Here's the thing about shopping in the Twin Cities and it's outlying areas: there is no reason, IMHO, to buy clothes for full price anywhere. I mean, why would you? Have you been to a Clothes Mentor lately? Or to the Salvation Army Thrift Store - Bloomington?  You know what I've found in said places in the last few months that have convinced me not to pay full retail price anywhere this fall? Well, I'm going to tell you. No really, I insist.

Thriftdog's Fall Haul: 

Salvation Army Thrift Store - Bloomington: I've reviewed this place before and I adore it. This fall alone I purchased a hip length, Gap all-leather coat for $14.99, a beautiful grey and black tweed Wet Seal tea-length coat bulky enough for layering for $11.99, a deep green/black Saudi-style scarf, which I've had comps on everywhere I've worn it, for $0.99, a beautifully soft, men's Chinese cashmere sweater, which I wear with leggings, the green scarf and boots, for $5.99 (five bucks for cashmere!!); a jean jacket for $4.99 and a red tartan, super wide belt with big silver studs all over it (punky but not dangerous), which I can wear with a simple black dress, the jean jacket and boots.Oh, and a like-new pair of fab grey and turquoise Converse sneaks for $5.99. 

ALERT: If you are looking for leather and suede jackets of all lengths and puffer vests - before you shop at the mall, come here first.

Clothes Mentor, Eden Prairie: A black Coach Bag for $45.00. Ok, it's a Coach Factory bag, but it' s beautiful, roomy, beautifully lined, perfect condition and 45 bucks! 

Plus a Dooney "Tiny East West" black pebble leather handbag - perfect for a night out, mint condition - thirty bucks! For a leather Dooney!!

(P.S. - As of this writing, there is a pumpkin orange Longchamp tote on sale over there for seventy bucks. Almost bought it, but I didn't, so if you want one...)

Clothes Mentor, Roseville: Another Dooney bag, this one brand new with the tags on and registration card still in the pocket - a huge tiger striped tote for $125.00 (discounted about 50 bucks off the store price). A gorgeous, deep chocolate brown, shearling lined Calvin Klein down coat for $45.00. A gold, shiny Jennifer Lopez military-syle slouchy sweater for $14.99 (some of her clothes are amazing), a couple pairs of designer jeans in the 14.00-16.00 range and a couple of thick, higher end sweaters in that price range as well.

Needless to say, right now the Clothes Mentors in town are my new best friends. I've found great stuff at the stores above, plus the ones in Edina and Woodbury. They specialize in designer and higher end label women's fashions for a bit heftier price point than the Goodwill-type stores, but still very reasonable given the merchandise. While they are all individually owned and franchised, I have yet to find a one so far, in my grand sweep of the Twin Cities, that has disappointed me. I have seen labels there, in addition to the ones I purchased, from Rag and Bone to Banana Republic to North Face to Ann Taylor Loft. Designer bags of all types. They even get a few Louis Vuitton's drifting through on special days. 

So really, if you need  your own  Hipster Fall Haul, my recommendation is this: Start at a great uber-cheap place like Salvation Army Thrift Store - Bloomington for the fun basics and a few treats, then head over to a Clothes Mentor or two or three for the stuff you want but would rather walk over nails than pay full price for. Then when you head off to work, not only will you look cool enough to stand next to the "right" people on the Light Rail, but you may even have saved enough to actually park your car downtown.

Clothes Mentor Roseville
2401 Fairview Ave N
Roseville, Minnesota 55113 

651-789-2880                                                        

Clothes Mentor Eden Prairie
8425 Joiner Way 

Eden Prairie, Minnesota
952-944-3111

Salvation Army Thrift Store - Bloomington
710 West 98th Street
Bloomington, MN 55420 

952-881-6197

Burnsville Salvation Army

Reviewed March 22, 2014

So, I'm now comfortably ensconced in my new Lowertown St. Paul digs, spring is in the air (sort of), and my good friend Dorene invites me to do lunch and some end-of-season thrift shopping. Did I jump at this chance? Well, duh. I needed all kinds of stuff for the new place and, like most of us at this point, I have major winter cabin fever. Time to bust out the single dollar bills and fill up the Hefty garbage bags with lots of new second-hand stuff. (Ok, I don't really use Hefty garbage bags. I just said that for dramatic effect. No offense to Hefty. I actually use my fire-engine red Dooney tote when I shop ' cause, you know, I be stylin'.)

The first place on our list was the Salvation Army located on Fairview Drive in Burnsville, (formerly 14101 Irving Ave.South), a side of town I had never shopped before.  I came in looking for lots of stuff - bedding, bath mats, sheets, spring tops and whatever else I could find to add some spring zest to the new place. I found almost everything I was looking for  - two high thread count sheets (one of which was brand new) each for around $5.99, two beautiful white embroidered linen pillow cases for a couple of bucks, a lovely pink bath mat (let's face it, the best place to find cheap furry bath mats always seems to be the Salvation Army), a perfectly tailored, beautifully fitting Express spring jacket for $6.99 and a great Target leopard print top for work days for about the same. Dorene made out like a bandit in the purse department, picking one faux Kate Spade color block number that easily could have passed for the real thing.

Now, at this SA I really didn't see anything much in the way of "designer", such as you can find over in the Bloomington SA if you look real hard, but this one certainly won the top award in several categories: merchandise care (both Dorene and I were impressed -  no grubby, wrinkly stuff to be seen here), cleanliness of the facility and the simplicity of the layout - do you hate going to places where there is no rhyme or reason to where they place things, just throwing all the stuff willy-nilly on racks for YOU to figure out? Me too. Well, here the merchandise was placed politely by size, type and color, and I found grabbing things to throw in my cart very easy - all I had to do was roll it down the aisle, jump, grab and pull, and before I knew it, I had my shopping cart full to overflowing.

Which, when all rang up, came to a grand total of $37.00 for two king sheets, a bath mat, two tops, a blazer,  two pairs of workout pants, two pillowcases and a great pair of comfy black slippers. Not high-end label stuff perhaps, but perfectly usable just the same. More wonderful still, that feeling of triumph at a superior thriftdogging experience, long missing this cold and barren winter, washed over me anew like liquid sunshine.

The Salvation Army in Burnsville is a great place to start your spring thrifting romp. If the selection is still as good as it was on the day we went, then you, too will surely feel a bit of sun under your pits as you raise your arms to grab stuff. And that, as we Thriftdoggers know, is a great way to start the spring.

The Salvation Army
13901 Fairview Drive
Burnsville, MN 55337                                                                                                                         

  

Hey, There!  Hi There! Ho There! It's Spring Shopping Time!

I'll bet you thought I dropped off the face of the earth, didn't you? Well, it sure felt like I did - didn't YOU feel like that this horrible-ist of horrible winters??

My apologies, Thriftdoggers, but it was just too damn COLD these last few months to go anywhere but to work and the grocery store and then back home and under a blanket or ten. But guess what?? It's now above freezing, the snow is melting, I need tons of new spring clothes and I'm heading to the Burnsville thrift stores this weekend! So beware and watch out and whoa Nelly!! New reviews up sooon--------